Jim Mcisaac / Getty Images

The Flyers' Claude Giroux, right, checks Tyler Kennedy of the Penguins into the boards during Philadelphia's Game 3 win.

By the midway point of the first period, the officials had their hands full. Giroux and Tyler Kennedy mixed it up at center ice, and the refs couldn’t stop Flyers center Darroll Powe and Letang from throwing punches along the boards.

The Flyers had 30 penalty minutes and the Penguins recorded 28.

The Penguins surprised Biron when Malkin took Ruslan Fedontenko’s feed from the corner and used a slapper on one knee for a goal with 12 seconds left in the first.

Rob Scuderi needed 13 seconds into the second to tie the game at 2 on shot into traffic from the high slot.

Malkin scored his fourth goal of the series to make it 5-3.

The 19,975 orange T-shirt-wearing fans erupted when Lauren Hart, the daughter of longtime former Flyers broadcaster Gene Hart, sang “God Bless America,” alternating lyrics with Kate Smith, who was on a video image. Smith’s rendition of the song has been a rallying anthem for the Flyers since the mid-1970s and the team uses the song sparingly.

The Flyers didn’t waste the energy from the amped-up crowd. Carter backhanded the puck into an empty net and Richards caught a break when his shot from the goal line appeared to knock off a Pittsburgh stick and shoot in for a power-play goal.

“We knew they would come out charging in the first period and that’s what they did,” Crosby said. “We expected that. I would have liked to weather it a bit, but we still got ourselves back in the game.”

The Penguins also got themselves a flight back to Pittsburgh.

Notes: Flyers F Dan Carcillo returned after serving a one-game suspension for his whack to Penguins forward Max Talbot’s head in the waning seconds of Game 1. ... The Flyers have fallen behind 0-2 14 times in playoff history and have won Game 3 eight times.

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